There is no doubt that African women have been erased from different liberation movements that occurred on the continent. Tunisia, in particular, is a country where women have carried the fight since day one: from the decolonization of their country to different movements that led to the legalization of abortion in 1973. Up to now, Tunisia is considered a country leader in the Arab world in promoting the legal and social status of women and Arab feminism has deep roots in Tunisia.
For more than decades, Tunisian feminists have advocated for women’s rights and democratization; arguing that the liberation of the nation, whether from French colonialists or Bourguiba’s or Ben Ali’s autocracies, and the progress of its society would forever remain incomplete without the liberation of its women.
This month, I will share the evolution of Tunisian feminism until today. Part one focuses on Bchira Ben Mrad and Habib Bourguiba, the first president of Tunisia. Part two will quickly map the evolution of Tunisian feminism with a certain focus on state feminism and political patriarchy. Part three will bring us a closer look on the Jasmine revolution….
Cheick Mohamed Salah Ben Mrad, Neo-Destour, UMFT
While the topic of women’s rights and education had been debated in the public sphere since the late 19th century, modern Tunisian feminists first came to the national stage in the 1920s. In the 1930s women flocked to the Destour party, protesting, demonstrating and being detained by the French colonial government alongside their male counterparts. Destour party was a political party founded in 1920, to liberate Tunisia from French colonial control. In its earlier beginning, the party was made of students from the University of Ez-Zitouna and Sadiki College. Neo-Destour, A radical wing of the party later rose, led by Habib Bourguiba, carried the decolonization of Tunisia and remained relevant and the only legal political party in Tunisia in the ’60s
No one can talk about the rise of Tunisian women without mentioning Bchira Ben Mrad. But Bchira, in particular, cannot be mentioned without her father : Cheikh El Islam Mohamed Salah Ben Mrad. He was a theologian, an intellectual and a great ally to women’s liberation. He spent his life advocating for a reform of the place of Tunisian women within the Islamic laws which were governing Tunisia. His book: Mourning Haddad’s Woman, published in 1931, continues to be a legacy of his life. He rejected the ideas of Tahar Haddad on the Status of Women in Tunisia, based on the scriptural texts of the Koran. Salah Ben Mrad came from a family of Tunis scholars and intellectuals of Ottoman origin, from Turkey which justifies his dedication to educating his daughters and keeping the scholar legacy of the family. Salah was convinced that the emancipation of Tunisian women required educating them. Therefore he spent his life advocating for that and publishing numerous articles in his journal: the Sun of Islam.
Born in 1913, into a family of scholar-activists and revolutionaries, Bchira Ben Mrad carried on with her dad’s legacy. In 1937, she founded “ UMFT” ( L’ Union musulmane des femmes Tunisiennes). In an interview with Journalist Noura Basli, Bchira recalled being 13, hearing a conversation on colonization and how horrible it was for the people to exist under french domination. At that particular moment, anger rose in her soul. she knew that she had to do something. It was years later that she organized with other women and started their framework of change within decolonization struggles. It wasn’t easy as women were not part of the nationalist movements. Inspired by the Egyptian feminist Houda Echaaraoui and the immense support of her dad, Bchira started the UMFT movement by women for women.
The birth of UMFT was a reaction to different events that occurred from 1934 to 1936. On the night of March 2nd, 1934 during the Ksar Hellal Congress, a new political party was born. There had been intergenerational misunderstandings within Destour members for a long period. The elders and the radical youth-led by Mahmoud El Materi, Habib Bourguiba, Bahri Guiga, failed to agree on the ways to resist the French. The congress of March 2nd 1934, had a major goal of addressing the intergenerational gap and voting on the necessity of the youth activism which was deemed disrespectful and very radical at that time. The meeting ended with the youth leaving Destour and publicly announcing the beginning of Neo-Destour: a new wave of Tunisian nationalists.
For young women like Bchira Ben Mrad, Naima Ben Salah, Tewhida Ben Sheikh, Neo-Destour seemed like their place to belong. However the Neo-Destour like its parent: Destour, devoted no attention to women and cared little about women’s issues or the conditions of women’s lives. Like many anti-colonial struggles, the question of women’s rights was always referred to as a situation to look at after independence was achieved. In 1936, Neo-Destour men failed to fundraise for their party. Bchira with Naima, Tewhida and other women, organized historical successful fundraising that gathered 9000 people. In 1937, UMFT was founded by Bchira to be an association for women to carry on with the good work and to be part of the liberation struggles. UMF existed under Neo-destour party until its dissolution in 1956. It is known that the men part of Neo-Destour controlled the women’s movement. It is also highly known that Bourguiba attended most of the women’s meetings.
Above all, UMFT did remarkable work around the status of women in Tunisia but Bchira, in particular, did more than advocate for women’s rights. She gave herself to the country and in return, she was erased and history for some time wasn’t kind to her. She was pushed out and humiliated by Bourguiba, a man she supported from feeding him to funding his movement. Once Independence was achieved in 1956, Bourguiba established a new organization: Union Nationale des femmes de Tunisie after dissolving UMFT and isolating Bchira away from the public political scene.
2. Bchira Ben Mrad and Bourguiba
I first came across Bchira Ben Mrad through a Tunisian friend. We were talking about African women revolutionaries we all should know. She opened my heart to Bchira and I went to dig. As I unraveled archives about her, one thing remained constant: patriarchy has been very good at denying women their due flowers and handing them to men on any occasion.
Habib Bourguiba, the well-acclaimed nationalist for the independence of Tunisia, owes his political career to Bchira. Born in 1903 in a family of eight, Bourguiba grew up in a family with financial hardship. In 1914, he joined his brother at Sadik college where years later, the first anti-colonial protest happened due to malnutrition, led by the students. Bourguiba, in danger, left Tunisia and returned in 1927, to struggle with unemployment. He became one of the beneficiaries of Bchira’s funds to support the nationalist movement.. Bourguiba’s career was a season of ups and downs and he spent most of his earlier political career outside of Tunisia. The whole time Bourguiba was out of the country, Bchira through UMFT carried the anti-colonial struggles. She mobilized, traveled the country teaching the patriotism spirit and convincing the people to rally behind Neo- Destour party. Bchira, created committees of women who fundraised to financially support families while their husbands were in exile or training for the liberation of the country.
Bchira had a childhood that made her sensitive to women’s ability to own their lives. She lost her mother when she was 10 and spent her childhood next to her dad. She questioned the patriarchal setting of women existing behind the scenes but mostly she always wondered why women were not welcomed in the Nationalist movement. Luckily, she had a father who believed in gender equality and supported her when she started the first Tunisian women’s movement in 1937.
Bchira was revolutionary and selfless. She invested every single penny she had in the liberation of Tunisia. After she saw an incredible leader in Bourguiba, she supported him and pushed him above and beyond to carry the negotiations with the French. She introduced Bourguiba to Lamine Bey ( the last King of Tunisia) and the two liberated Tunisia.
Mainstream history rarely refers to Bchira and her incomparable work to free Tunisia but mostly I keep wondering why a woman who spent over 20 years from 1930 to 1956, working tirelessly from collecting funds, feeding, praying and being arrested at many occasions, was humiliated and pushed aside from an association she built from scratch. Bourguiba is not the only one who benefitted from Bchira’s work. Many revolutionary men celebrated by Tunisia, such as Jallouli Farès, Mongi Slim, Rachid Driss, Habib Bourguiba, Béhi Ladgham, Ahmed Ben Miled, Slaheddine Bouchoucha, Mongi Baly, Mohamed Belhassine, Sadok el Mokaddem, Chédli Klibi, Hédi Nouira,…were fed, their bills covered or hosted by Bchira.
The answer is nothing. There is no single valid reason which explains why after independence, Bchira was erased from the collective memory of anti-colonial struggles in Tunisia. Patriarchy did what it’s good at: putting men on pedestals made of women’s sweat.
With the French protectorate dissolved in 1956, Bourguiba came to power as the new nation’s president. An autocrat known for decades for human rights abuses, he was the pioneer of what many in Tunisia recognize as ‘state feminism.’ Mere months after independence, Bourguiba instituted the Code of Personal Status (CPS), a body of family law that granted women unprecedented liberties. Women were granted the right to divorce and greater rights in the realms of marriage, child custody, and social autonomy. Consent became required for women to marry, repudiation was replaced by judicial divorce accessible to men and women, and polygamy was outlawed. Not only was his state feminism another patriarchal scam, but feminist historians also argue that while the CPS and consequent reforms were monumental, many of the state’s policies were the first steps taken by a post-colonial government on a path to neoliberalism. The fruits of these reforms were also too few; rarely did the poorest and most vulnerable benefit from them. But the state propaganda machine had long taken off. The statement of the CPS cemented Bourguiba’s position as ‘the savior of Tunisian women’ in the public eye and initiated a culture of political patriarchy. Discourse on policies and rights were platformed only when spearheaded by women affiliated to Bourguiba’s Neo-Destour party. Bourguiba, in promoting himself and his regime as the pioneer of women’s rights, he erased Bchira and the other women who had done the organizing since 1930.
Bchira was known to separate her public life from her married life that so little is known about her marriage. She is however known to have kept her family’s name even after her marriage, putting her among the first feminists to reject taking their husband’s names. In 1940, Bchira supported young women who protested against covering their hair. In 1950, Bchira made her first public appearance with no veil and her hair out. Throughout her life, she advocated for the education of girls under her most known quote: “ We cannot build a stable society when half of the population is not educated.” For Bchira, Tunisian women’s liberation was as important as the decolonization of Tunisia and she carried the two struggles together.
After independence, Bchira funded diverse protests by women. Bourguiba, the revolutionary she made who was then the supreme leader, became the dictator who oppressed her. According to Bourguiba and his regime, the Code of Personal Status gave Tunisian women their rights and more. Any feminist including Bchira and even his niece Radhia who made additional demands was viewed as ungrateful and deserved to be penalized. Bourguiba punished Bchira for her continued resistance against the patriarchy, by removing her from UMFT’s leadership and dissolving it. He supported the creation of another women’s movement: UNFT and Radhia Haddad, Bourguiba’s niece was his personal choice for the leader of the new union. Fortunately, Radhia grew to continue Bchira’s legacy. When Radhia sought more changes to the CPS ( code of personal status), Bourguiba refused, so she joined the liberal wing of the PSD, headed by Ahmed Mestiri, an opponent of the president. Radhia would suffer there as well. Her term as the president of the UNFT ended, her passport was confiscated and her parliamentary immunity was lifted. She was eventually prosecuted and penalized regardless of her family status( the loved niece of Bourguiba)
There is no doubt Bourguiba marginalized and silenced many important figures because he wanted to be seen as the sole liberator and the hero of women in the country. Yet in doing so, he even had the audacity of biting the hand that fed him: Bchira Ben Mrad. Things got worse after she denounced Bourguiba and his ways of threatening to revoke women’s rights and how he used Tunisian women’s empowerment for his benefits. Bchira was put into a house arrest with no capability to leave the country.
Bchira is a mere example of the urgent need to rewrite history, with women at the center. Her legacy is celebrated here and there. In 1990, Kais Ben Mrad, started to produce a documentary on the life of Bchira. His plan failed as he was arrested the day after his first interview with Bchira. She died 3 years later in 1993 when Kais in exile, was planning to relaunch the production activities.
May Bchira Ben Mrad, continue to rest in peace. I am aware this is not even 10% of what we should know about Bchira. I hope I was able to push all of us, to continue digging and keep her name in our memory.
A special gratitude to my mentees: Eden and Angella for their dedication to this research work.
( All my sources will be shared at the end of Part three)